Protective



(No Model.)

L. E. WALKINS. PROTECTIVE APPLIANCE FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. N0. 600,564. Patented May. 15,1898.

wimmow Z0 Z'J' mew 5 4 UNr'rnD STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS E. WALKINS, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO FRANOKE W. DICKINSON, OF SAME PLACE.

PROTECTIVE APPLIANCE FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 600,564, dated March 15, 1898.

Application filed July 17, 1897. Serial No. 644,917. (No model.)

T 60% whom it may concern.-

'Be it known that I, LOUIS E. WALKINS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Protective Appliances for Electric Railways, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to protective devices for electric railways wherein a third-rail conductor. is employed comprised in the power circuit, the object of the protective devices being to prevent a person who may be walking on or crossing the railway from coming in contact with the intermediate conductorrail, whereby he might receive a shock, the said appliances being so constructed and sustained that while effectually serving the purposes for which they are primarily intended they and their conjunctive equipments will not constitute a catch-pocket or trough for water, snow, dirt, or other matter, but will effectually shed the same or readily allow of the same being shed away from the rail; and

the invention consists in the third-rail conductor, its support or exposed conduit above the level of the bed-trackway, and the protective appliances ranging along parallel with and in proximity to the third rail, and yet so as not to obstruct the entrance of the shoe or underrunnin g trolley upon the third-rail conductor, said protective appliances being sustained on separate pillars rising at either side of the rail support or bed.

The improvement is fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in Which- Figure 1 is a plan view of the third-rail conductor, the supports and housing therefor, and the guard-rails, which are insulated 40 from, butsupported in proximity to, the thirdrail conductor. Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the same on line 2 2.

In the drawings, A represents the thirdrail conductor, as termed, it being undertsood as being a rail located along and above the road-bed between and parallel with the usual car-track rails. (Not shown.)

B represents a trough-like upwardly-open support or conduit for the conductor-rail,

which I prefer to have of insulating material,

such as anaglypta or vulcanite, the rail being supported therein and confinedin any suitable manner and by any suitable means.

a a represent current-wires connecting the third rail and bonded thereto, and Z) represents a filling substance of insulating material in the conduit covering and inclosing the base and neck of the rail,leaving the tread portion only thereof exposed. The conduit B is supported on cross-ties or tie-supported beams on the railway and has the angle-braces (l (l for maintaining'it stable.

0 O represent the protector guard-rails, the same ranging parallel with each other and with the rail, above the level of the rail, and being supported by the pillars f f, rising above the opposite edges of the conduit at suitable intervalsas, for instance, every four or five feet.

In practice it is desirable to have the guardrails O O separated bya space between their inner edges of about four inches, which is ample for the passage of the shoe G onto the rail A, and yet is such that the rail is substantially bridged, so that the foot will not come upon the rail.

The filling b and the top edges of the conduit B, which constitute the support and bed for the third rail, are downwardly and outwardly inclined from the rail, as seen at I g, whereby gravel, dirt, or snow or other obstruction will have a tendency to be shed from the rail or the surface at the base thereof.

I claim 1. In an electric railway, the combination with the third-rail conductor and a support and bed for said rail constructed to partially inclose the rail and having the upper surface thereof inclining from near the tread portion of the rail outwardly and downwardly at each side thereof of separated supports rising above the bed at intervals along, at either side of the rail, and the guard-rails sustained in separation and parallelism above the rail-top, on said supports, substantially as and for the purposes despribed.

2. In an electric railway the combination with the third-rail conductor, the troughconduit in which it is centrally supported, the separated pillars rising above the sides of the trough-conduit, the guard-rails supported my invention I have signed my name, in presin parallelism by said pillars, and the filling ence of two witnesses, this 10th day of June, b in said trough, the top of which together 1897.

with the top edges of the trough-conduit are LOUIS E. WALKINS. 5 downwardly and outwardly inclined, as de- Witnesses:

scribed for the purpose set forth. WM. S. BELLoWs,

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as M. A. CAMPBELL. 

